CHRISTMAS GIFTS The personal touch

Homemade gifts are much more thoughtful than those you buy at the mall.
By JANET SIMONS
SCRIPPS HOWARD
"It is a cold, lifeless business when you go to the shops to buy me something which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith's."
In 1844, when Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote his essay about Christmas giving, most Americans were crafting corn-husk dolls and embroidering handkerchiefs to give as gifts. One can only imagine what Emerson would think about today's holiday season, which seems mostly about fueling the fourth-quarter retail economy.
Homemade gifts are usually bargains compared with the store-bought kind, and money's tight for many this year. But that's not the only reason to make your own gifts. Making them can become a family activity. As children participate, they learn there's more to the holiday season than acquiring the most heavily advertised toy at the mall.
For example, when 17-year-old Sonja DeVries of Denver helps her mother, Carolyn, as she chops chocolate in preparation for candy-making, "It sounds like comfort," Sonja says. It should. The mother and daughter have worked together every holiday season since Sonja could climb up on a step stool and stir.
& quot;Candy-making is a holiday tradition in our family," said Carolyn. "It's important to us to be involved in what we give to people, rather than just going out and buying it. There's just something special about giving something that we make."
DeVries teaches private classes on making chocolate truffles, but she suggests fudge for beginners.
"Rings and other jewels are not gifts but apologies for gifts," Emerson wrote. "The only gift is a portion of thyself."
Here are nine suggestions for easy-to-make gifts that offer "a portion of thyself." The recipe for DeVries' Decadent Fudge rounds things out to 10.
A MEAL IN A BASKET
Give a friend the gift of knowing dinner's ready. Start now making double portions of whatever you feed your family -- meatloaf, lasagna, barbecued chicken, for example. Freeze the spare food in foil pans and make baskets anchored by the main dishes and supplemented with appropriate side dishes, a beverage (a bottle of sparkling apple cider is a festive choice) and dessert.
A HOMEMADE CD
Can you remember the songs your mother sang to you as lullabies? Or the songs you sang with your brother as you drove to California on the way to college? Do you have a friend who's going through a rough breakup and might like to listen to some tunes about heartbreak? With a home computer that features a CD burner, you can create personalized CDs for the people you love.
What you'll need: A computer with 700 MB or more of free disk space and a CD-R (CD-Recordable) or CD-RW (CD-ReWriteable) drive, blank CD-R disks in 74- or 80-minute formats, software for the CD burner.
Where to get more information: Try your favorite computer-savvy 14-year-old, a store that sells software, or the Web sites for PC World (PCWorld.com) and PC Magazine (PCMag.com).
A RECIPE COLLECTION
Share your know-how. Collect your favorite recipes and print booklets, or write them on note cards and put them into a decorated note-card box for friends, newly married couples or children who have left home and yearn for the taste of Mom's meatloaf. Noncooks can make collections of favorite jokes, poems, prayers, inspirational thoughts or whatever.
What you'll need: For computers, a word-processing program, a color printer, software for making greeting cards or booklets. Note cards, of course, can be handwritten.
How to do it: Use the software program to make the booklet cover and print it on card stock. Pages, on regular paper, can be printed using any word-processing program.
Where to get supplies and more information: Office-supply stores.
A PHOTO WITH AN INSCRIPTION
"I remember when rock was young. Me and Suzy had so much fun." Pull out that prom photo of you and your spouse or a favorite snapshot of a party, a fishing trip or a sunset behind Mount Evans and find or write some personal words to accompany it. Mount the photo with the saying underneath, and frame it in a fancy frame.
What you'll need: Those with digital cameras and color printers can do this project easily on a computer. Technophobes can use traditional supplies such as stickers and calligraphy pens.
Where to get supplies and more information: Hobby shops, scrapbooking shops.
COUPONS FOR SERVICES OR TIME
Children can offer services (car-washing, room-cleaning, sock-sorting), and parents can offer game-playing or other special, uninterrupted time. Coupons should specify the amount of time they cover. These can be produced with nothing more sophisticated than a pencil and a few pieces of paper, but computers, crayons, stickers and glitter can be employed to make them look more festive.
CERAMIC PIECES
Several ceramics shops sell unfired pottery and the time, classes and supplies that enable even beginners to glaze and decorate them to produce professional-looking mugs, plates, vases, piggy banks, spoon rests and statuettes. Pieces are sent to the kiln for firing, and customers pick them up within a couple of days.
Where to get supplies and more information: Check the Yellow Pages under "Ceramic Products -- Decorative."
AN HERB GARDEN
Seed packets for fragrant and flavorful herbs are extremely inexpensive, and most herb seeds germinate within two weeks. But if you have a spotty history with gardening, just buy the herbs in 1- or 2-inch pots and arrange them prettily in a basket or other large container, such as that slightly cracked aquarium you've been saving since the goldfish died. Lots of other plant gifts can be produced with seeds, cuttings or bulbs, too. Amaryllis or paperwhite narcissus bulbs potted in December, for example, will brighten many midwinter days.
Diane Stahl, of Urban Roots in Denver, suggests nestling paperwhite narcissus plants into a glass bowl. Sink them into black rocks and water, and drop key limes and cranberries on top for a festive look.
Where to get supplies and more information: Florists, garden centers, greenhouses and nurseries.
A BIRDSEED CAKE OR WREATH
Does your circle of friends and relatives include bird lovers? Give them hours of bird-watching with a handmade seed cake.
How to do it: Combine one ounce of unflavored gelatin and 1/4 cup of water in a saucepan over low heat. Stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved, then add 1 1/4 cups of any combination of seeds the birds in your area enjoy. Try half black-oil sunflower and half safflower seeds. Mix until all seeds are coated with gelatin. Pack the mixture firmly into a plastic container or a mold in the shape of a wreath, a star or a Christmas tree. Once the cake is removed from the mold, it's "for the birds."
Where to get supplies and more information: Check the Yellow Pages under "Feed Dealers."
FLAVORED VINEGAR
You can easily pay $20 for a small bottle of herbed or fruited vinegar from a gourmet grocery. But why? It's easy to make and can be a beautiful gift if it's presented in an attractive bottle.
How to do it: Sterilize bottles in boiling water. Fill them with white wine vinegar or rice vinegar and well-crushed, chopped or ground flavorings. Cover and set aside for three to four weeks. Strain the vinegar through cheesecloth one or more times until the vinegar is no longer cloudy, and return it to resterilized bottles. Add a few whole berries, a twist of peel, a sprig of herb, a few halved cloves of garlic or a ring of pepper or such for decoration, if you choose. Seal tightly with corks or plastic screw-on tops (avoid any with a metal or metal-foil liner), and add a decorative wrap if you choose.